Ingrid E. Flager

May 20, 1917 - August 10, 2010

Obituary

Ingrid Elisabet Selkämaa Flager, 93, died peacefully surrounded by family at Big Bend Hospice in Tallahassee, Florida, on August 10, 2010. "Inky" was born at home May 20th, 1917, in Warren, OH, to emigrant parents Edvard Selkämaa (Alavus, Finland) and Johanna Pesonen (Voikka, Finland), who met on the ship to America. Ingrid grew up speaking Finnish, learning English when she started public school along with the other immigrant children. An avid reader in Finnish and English, she imparted a love of letters and learning to all her children. She performed recitation and theater, sang, and played violin at social...

Ingrid Elisabet Selkämaa Flager, 93, died peacefully surrounded by family at Big Bend Hospice in Tallahassee, Florida, on August 10, 2010.

"Inky" was born at home May 20th, 1917, in Warren, OH, to emigrant parents Edvard Selkämaa (Alavus, Finland) and Johanna Pesonen (Voikka, Finland), who met on the ship to America. Ingrid grew up speaking Finnish, learning English when she started public school along with the other immigrant children. An avid reader in Finnish and English, she imparted a love of letters and learning to all her children. She performed recitation and theater, sang, and played violin at social gatherings during her teens. A graduate of Warren G. Harding High School in 1935, she elected to stay in Warren with friends of the family and finish school after most of the town's Finnish workers left for employment in Baltimore. She joined her mother there and graduated at the top of her class from the University of Maryland School of Nursing, Baltimore in 1938, with further study at Columbia and Johns Hopkins, then worked as a Public Health Registered Nurse until the beginning of WWII. Commissioned as an Army Lieutenant, she served in the 107th Evac Hospital, which was nearly encircled in the Battle of the Bulge, and followed the fighting all the way to Germany and the liberation of the concentration camps. She met George Flager, her future husband, at an Army dance during a lull in the fighting after D-Day. They were married in Pilsen, Czechoslovakia on June 1st, 1945. George stayed in the Army and Ingrid became an Army Wife, raising six children and moving 19 times before settling in Tallahassee in 1964. As a Registered Nurse at FSU's Thagard Health Center she enjoyed a third career, finally retiring to a quiet life in the country. Preceded in death by George in 1987, she spent the following years in typical Finnish solitude, enjoying her reading, gardening, walking, and spoiling each new grandchild in turn.

She was a longtime member of Blessed Sacrament Church, was a member of the church choir, and appreciated the home visits in her later years. The family wishes to thank everyone who helped Ingrid spend all but the last few days in her familiar home of 40 years, especially Beverly Gilyard. Ingrid was cherished by all who knew her, and is remembered as a person who never had an unkind word to say about anyone, ever. She will be interred with George at Culley's Meadowood Memorial Park in a private ceremony. The family suggests donations to Big Bend Hospice, or any Alzheimer's organization.

Arrangements are under the direction of Culley's MeadowWood Funeral Home, Tallahassee, FL.